The drone secrets we should see

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit recently ruled that the Central Intelligence Agency may no longer refuse to acknowledge something that everyone knows to be true: the agency has “an interest” in the use of drones to carry out targeted killings. The CIA is unaccustomed to courts rejecting its secrecy claims, but in asking the courts to pretend that the agency might have no connection whatsoever to the targeted killing program, the agency dramatically overreached. Unsurprisingly, the appeals court was unwilling to give its “imprimatur to a fiction of deniability that no reasonable person would regard as plausible.”

The immediate consequence of the appeals court’s ruling is that the CIA must answer a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the American Civil Liberties Union more than three years ago — the agency must disclose records about the program or supply a legally sufficient justification for withholding them. But the ruling should trigger some deeper reflection within the Obama administration. Is the secrecy surrounding the killing program truly necessary? Shouldn’t the public know who is being killed, and why?

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The administration owes the public a fuller account of the program. It should begin by releasing the legal memos that supposedly justify the program. In litigation, the government has acknowledged the existence of three memos; it has shown other memos to some members of Congress. Disclosure of the memos to the public — redacted, if necessary, to protect intelligence sources and methods — would help the public better understand who the government considers to be lawful targets and why the government believes the program to be consistent with domestic and international law.

The government should also disclose more information about how it selects its targets. Who decides what name is added to a “kill list”? Who reviews the decision? Who, in other words, should the public hold accountable?

Right now, the public does not know which officials to hold accountable or even what, exactly, to hold them accountable for. News stories have indicated that most deaths attributable to the targeted killing program are the result not of “targeted killings” in any literal sense, but of so-called signature strikes — strikes aimed at individuals or groups whose identities are unknown or unconfirmed but whose observed behavior matches certain profiles. The U.K.-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism has reported that in Pakistan, the CIA’s signature strikes have targeted rescuers and funerals. The administration should explain, with far more specificity than it has done so far, who it is that the CIA and Defense Department are actually trying to kill.

The administration should also release basic information about the program’s actual human impact. A senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee recently acknowledged that the program has resulted in the deaths of 4,700 people; independent research groups estimate that as many as a quarter of those killed were civilians. To the extent the government knows who has been killed, it should disclose the names.